Basil Cardew
{{Short description|British journalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Basil Cardew
| image =Basil Ivor Denton Cardew.jpg
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|10|28|df=y}}
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1992|11|30|1906|10|28|df=y}}
| death_place = West Sussex, England
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| nationality = British
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| occupation = Journalist
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Basil Ivor Denton Cardew (28 October 1906 – 30 November 1992) was a British journalist. He was the motoring correspondent for the Daily Express and the editor of their annual motor show review from the 1950s to the 1970s. He also served as a war correspondent during the Second World War. He was described by The Times as "a compelling anecdotalist and a lavish spender of his paper's expenses".
Early life
Basil Cardew was born on 28 October 1906, the son of the journalist Alfred Roger Denton-Cardew (1878–1945), who worked for the Daily Mail for 38 years as the racing correspondent, writing as "Robin Goodfellow","The 'Daily Mail'." by Basil Cardew, The Times, 11 May 1946, p. 5. and was killed in a road accident.Greenwall, Harry James. (1957) Northcliffe, Napoleon of Fleet Street. Allan Wingate. p. 145. His mother was Ellen Fielder Cardew."Basil Cardew", The Times, 8 January 1993, p. 17.[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KC6G-2KF Basil Ivor Denton Cardew Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900-1965.] Family Search. Retrieved 20 November 2018. {{subscription required}}
Career
Cardew's journalistic career began at the Press Association. Early in his career he saw the land speed record attempts of Malcolm Campbell, who he was close to,{{cite book|last=Tremayne|first=David |title=Donald Campbell: The Man Behind The Mask|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=baPO0cDRZhoC&pg=PA146|year=2004|publisher=Bantam Books|isbn=978-1-4464-3849-7|page=146}} and the water speed attempt of Henry Segrave in 1930 in which Segrave was killed."Basil Cardew" in William Barkley (1959) Reporter's Notebook. Oldbourne. p. 63. He joined the Daily Express in 1933 when Arthur Christiansen took over as editor and began to revamp the paper, resulting in a large increase in circulation. His early stories for the paper included attending the divorce hearing of Wallis and Ernest Simpson.
He served as a war correspondent during the Second World War{{cite book|last=North|first=Richard |title=The Many Not The Few: The Stolen History of the Battle of Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUXLBjbOQGEC&pg=PA125|year=2012|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4411-8551-8|page=125}} reporting from the home front and abroad where he had several narrow escapes as a result of working too close to the front line. After the war, he was the motoring and air correspondent for the Express and was a well known figure at motor racing events and airshows in the 1940s and 50s. He was the editor of the reviews of the paper's motor show published annually from the 1950s to the 1970s.British Library Catalogue. bl.uk Retrieved 21 November 2018.
In their obituary, The Times described him as "a compelling anecdotalist and a lavish spender of his paper's expenses" with a camel-hair coat and "rakish trilby" hat. John Bullock described him as "one of the most outstanding motoring writers of the day. He covered every major motoring event over a period of some 40 years".Bullock, John. (1993) The Rootes Brothers: Story of a Motoring Empire. Patrick Stephens. p. 189. {{ISBN|9781852604547}} David Kynaston described him as "anti-pedestrian".{{cite book|author=Kynaston, David.|title=Family Britain, 1951-1957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0q7UMRzIQQC&pg=PA50|year=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London|isbn=978-1-4088-0349-3|page=50}}
Death
Cardew died in West Sussex, on 30 November 1992. He left an estate not exceeding £125,000.[https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar/GetImgSrc?filePath=%2F1992%2FC%2F001399_carder_1992.Png 1992 Probate Calendar, p. 1396.]
Selected publications
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/person/basil-cardew Motorsport Magazine, articles tagged to Basil Cardew]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardew, Basil}}